


Orange

by the_genderman



Series: Panchromium [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (touched on and not gone into any detail), Bucky's revenge tour, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Gen, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, briefly touching on jail and the aftermath of the Winter Soldier trial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 03:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13650564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_genderman/pseuds/the_genderman
Summary: Orange. Symbolic of warmth, determination, change, risk-taking. Also chemical hazard symbols, fire, danger. A warning.





	Orange

**Author's Note:**

> We’ve reached the modern era. Somewhat post CA:TWS, also beginning to diverge from canon. Steve and Sam are tracking Bucky by following the trail of ransacked HYDRA cells.

“Well, this is new,” Sam said, watching the fire department trying to contain the blaze that had already destroyed most of what had once been a HYDRA safehouse. He and Steve remained in the car, sitting a safe distance away behind the cordon. Steve kept glancing between the fire and the notes in the folder open in his lap.

“At least we can be pretty sure we’re on the right track, at any rate,” Steve commented. “We can’t have missed him by much. We’ll catch up to him before much longer, I can feel it.”

“That’s all you’re going to say about this? That we’ll catch up to him soon? Nothing about how he’s suddenly jumped from ‘zip-cuff the HYDRA goons and leave them at the closest police station’ and moved right along to ‘burn the place to the ground’? You’re not concerned at all?”

“I can be concerned once we find him and we can get him the help he needs,” Steve replied. “But first we have to find him.”

Sam sighed. He and Steve had been on the road for almost two straight months tracking the Winter Soldier. Bucky. Whoever he was anymore. There hadn’t been any confirmed sightings, just the trail of squid Nazis being suddenly deposited at law enforcement’s feet beginning in Washington, DC to now this fire in the outskirts of Akron, Ohio. (Sam hesitated to say “Well, that escalated quickly,” because on this road trip he had quickly come to realize that Steve _really_ liked stupid memes. Don’t give him any more ammunition.) And while he didn’t regret agreeing to help Steve on his search, he was starting to doubt Steve’s ability to look at the situation with an unbiased eye. Steve seemed to think that when they found Bucky, that he’d get his friend back. (His friend and erstwhile, putative, lover. Or whatever kind of complicated relationship they’d had.) Sam wanted to show a _little_ more caution. 

With no sightings (the HYDRA goons weren’t saying much), it was hard to gauge Bucky’s mental state. Yes, he _had_ spared Steve’s life, pulling him from the Potomac, but only after trying and nearly succeeding in killing him. Before the fire, Sam had kept his misgivings to himself, deciding that they were probably just his own distrust of the guy who had tried to kill him twice already. (Sam did not take being flung off a helicarrier lightly, even if it wasn’t personal.) There hadn’t been any evidence of violence. All the HYDRA members had been captured and brought in alive. Maybe a little (sometimes a lot) beat up, but (mostly) in one piece; each was found to be missing one tooth, but Steve figured that was probably where their cyanide capsules had been hidden, and Bucky had deliberately removed them so that they could be held accountable for their crimes. Maybe it was a redemption tour, not a revenge tour. But then the fire happened, and Sam wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Alright, so we find him,” Sam said. “But to do that, we’ll still have to regroup and see if we can figure out his next stop on this Magical Misery Tour.”

“True enough,” Steve sighed. “Take us back to the hotel, please.”

\---------------------

“Do you trust me?” Steve asked, seemingly à propos of nothing.

Sam turned to look at Steve, who was seated on the edge of his bed, pile of folders next to him, one open on his lap. Sam raised one eyebrow skeptically. “You have to ask? Of course I do.”

“I mean, I’m grateful that you decided to come with me to look for Bucky, but it almost feels like you don’t want to find him,” Steve said, slowly.

“Steve, that’s not it,” Sam said, walking over to his bed and sitting down on it to face Steve. “I am only trying to keep you grounded. I agree that we need to find him. Maybe not for entirely the same reasons you have, but I’m here. I just think, sometimes, you don’t see the whole picture.”

“What am I not seeing? I want to find him and bring him in, I want to help him.”

“That fire doesn’t worry you?” Sam asked pointedly. “We don’t know what kind of lasting effects he may have from everything he’s been through. We don’t know if he’s going to be violent when we find him. And let’s be honest, he slightly outmatches you in the fighting department, if for no other reason than he’s probably got combat knives tucked into every crevice he can get them into. He is a walking danger sign. I don’t want to see you hurt, Steve. One, because you’re my friend, and two, because if you get your reckless ass hurt or killed on my watch, Fury will track me down and make me regret ever having met you.”

“He wouldn’t,” Steve said confidently.

Sam just stared back at him.

“Ok, yeah, he would. But I can’t stop looking.”

“Not asking you to. Just asking, if and when we find him, that you exercise some caution. I know that’s a foreign word to you, Steve, but please.”

“Alright, Sam, I promise,” Steve chuckled, flashing Sam a surprisingly sincere grin.

They were going to make it through this.

\-----------------------------------

Ok, so this wasn’t exactly how Steve expected to find Bucky.

Steve sat on the prison’s visitors’ side of the glass and waited for Bucky to pick up the phone. He was taking in Bucky’s new appearance: bright orange prison jumpsuit and hair buzzed nearly to his scalp. Bucky had always been kind of vain about his hair, so when had that happened? _Why_ had that happened? He had so many questions.

Bucky finally took the phone off its cradle and answered. “Hello, Steve,” he said, a bite to his voice.

“I’d like to say it’s good to see you, but this wasn’t how I had hoped it would happen,” Steve said. “Do you have a lawyer yet?”

“Didn’t think that far ahead, honestly,” Bucky shrugged.

“How are you holding up?”

“It’s been two days, Steve. I’m ok. I suppose I’ll probably get transferred somewhere a little higher security before too much longer, but I’m ok.”

“Do they know…?” Steve asked, the question trailing into nothingness.

“Do they know who I am? They’re not blind. Not a whole lot of guys out there with prosthetics like this,” Bucky said, standing up and nodding his head towards his left arm, showing Steve the fancy new ‘bracelet’ locked around his left wrist. He sat back down and resettled the phone. “They even figured out how to reversibly stop it from functioning—don’t want me using it to break out and escape, or something like that. I’m not going to do that. I’m done.”

“I read the abridged report. I’m guessing he was HYDRA?”

“Yep. He sold me to Pierce for a quiet retirement in Cleveland, of all places when the Soviet Union broke up and Russia got too hot for him. I mean, that’s not _all_ ,” Bucky added, seeing Steve’s face. “Without going into too much detail, he’s the reason I did this.” Bucky shifted the phone and gestured towards his new haircut, adding sarcastically “He liked my hair long. It wasn’t exactly practical in the field, but you can’t get a handhold on a buzzcut. He liked to be in control. If he hadn’t had nosy neighbors, if the police hadn’t found me when they did, I would have killed him. He deserved it.”

“Don’t say any more,” Steve said, a seed of nausea taking root in the pit of his stomach when he realized what Bucky was alluding to and how casually he had dropped it into their conversation. “I’m getting you a lawyer.”

They were going to make it through this, somehow.

\----------------------

“Do I know any lawyers?” Sam asked, glancing over at Steve as they drove back to New York to regroup. “I’ve got a cousin who’s a patent lawyer, but I don’t think that’s going to be any help. Ask Tony. I’m sure he’s got at least a dozen lawyers on retainer.”

\-----------------------

“Why do you need a criminal lawyer?” Tony asked, eyeing Steve suspiciously. “Captain America’s got a dark side none of us know about?”

“The lawyer’s for Bucky,” Steve clarified.

“Ah, of course. Robocrook. Yeah, I suppose he probably does need a pretty good lawyer. I know just the lawyer for you. Bernie Rosenthal; she’s the best of the best. Just, don’t mention my name. She _kinda_ hates me for completely legitimate reasons. I was a real dick when I was younger,” Tony said, pulling out his phone, flipping through his contacts, and emailing the contact information to Steve. “If you need an in, tell her Pepper recommended her.”

“Thank you,” Steve said, pulling Tony into a hug. Tony gave a surprised squeak, but rolled with it.

\-----------------------

Throughout the trial, Steve kept telling himself that he’d have to do something _really_ big to thank Natasha for all the S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA files she had leaked to the public and for digging up the old Soviet Winter Soldier files. Because without them, the jury (and the general public) probably wouldn’t have been nearly as sympathetic. He’d have to do something equally big (but within professional bounds) to thank Bernie, because she had been nothing short of miraculous in arguing Bucky’s case. And something to thank Sam for standing by him through the trial and helping to ground him, even when he was at his most neurotic (Sam was one of the few people he’d allow to see that side of him). But all of that would have to wait just a little bit longer. Steve was one of the group currently being hustled out of the media circus and into a car—provided by Tony to get them safely back to the Tower, leaving the madhouse of the courtroom behind him. With the “not guilty” verdict, _everything_ exploded.

Steve kept trying to catch Bucky’s eye (he’d love to get a word in edgewise, but it was far too loud in the babel of voices, the crush of people trying to get a comment), but Bucky was lost in himself. Judging by his face, it almost looked like he hadn’t expected this verdict. Steve reached out and gave Bucky’s hand a gentle squeeze. When Bucky looked up, surprised at that contact, Steve flashed him a quick smile. Bucky hesitated for a moment, then smiled back at him.

They _were_ making it through this.

**Author's Note:**

> Stay tuned for the thrilling (and smut-filled) conclusion in "Red," whenever that ends up happening. I unfortunately cannot set a publish date at this point in time.


End file.
